Puncher’s Chance Bourbon Unveils 12-Year-Old Limited Release: The Di12tance

by Hannah Kanik
January 30, 2022

Wolf’s Spirit’s Puncher’s Chance Bourbon recently announced its first-ever limited release offering — the D12TANCE Straight Tennessee Bourbon.

The release is aged for 12 years in traditional stone and wood rickhouses and finished in California Cabernet Sauvignon barrels. It is now available at fine spirits retailers at $120 SRP for a 750 ml.

Just 70 barrels of The D12TANCE, sourced from the IJW Whiskey Company in Louisville, Kentucky, were made from a mash bill of 84 percent corn, eight percent malt, eight percent rye and a proprietary yeast strain.

D12TANCE Straight Tennessee Bourbon (image via Wolf Spirit)

The release has what’s described by the brand as a complex aroma of vanilla, dark cherry fruit and toasted oak. The Tennessee Bourbon is at a 96 proof and has a warm hint of caramel and vanilla that develop into a fruity finish.

The D12TANCE is the second release from Puncher’s Chance – a new American whiskey entry from Wolf Spirit, out of Eugene, Oregon, and comes on the heels of the fall 2020 release of the company’s foray into aged dark spirits with the release of Puncher’s Chance Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

The brand name of Puncher’s Chance itself is a boxing reference, denoting what’s said to be that almost anyone is possible of a knockout punch, no matter what the odds. The new offering, The D12TANCE, is a double entendre – referring both to the age of the liquid and the 12 official rounds in a formal boxing match.

“As a relative newcomer to the whiskey category, Wolf Spirit knew the liquid for Puncher’s Chance The D12TANCE needed to pack a punch (pun intended) if we wanted to make our mark, which is why we partnered with the talented team at IJW,” Umberto Luchini, Founder of Wolf Spirit, said in a prepared statement. “With The D12TANCE, we are finishing a 12-year-old Bourbon in wine casks, which is quite unique, as you usually see much younger whiskies receiving this treatment. This was critical to us because we didn’t want the fine Bourbon overpowered by the wine barrel finishing. Our goal was to use the finishing to coax more of the existing characteristics out of the whiskey.”

The D12TANCE comes housed in the traditional Puncher’s Chance jet-black bottle with a gentle fade at the bottom to reveal the amber liquid within. The Puncher’s Chance tiger, a common symbol in boxing and MMA fighting, again graces the label, but this time in gold leaf, making it more identifiable on the back bar.